Cell motility and maintenance of cells in storage are two factors that are highly important to processes for keeping cells viable, or improving viability in cells for a variety of biologic and medical purposes. An important application for maintaining cell motility and for encouraging cell motility is the practice of artificial insemination. In vitro fertilization and artificial insemination both require a large proportion of viable motile sperm to ensure fertilization.
Cell viability must also be maximized in cell and tissue culture. Generally, in cell or tissue culture procedures the media is changed at least every 48 to 72 hours to ensure ongoing viability of the culture. This may result in disruption of the culture and minimally may cause an interruption in constant incubation temperature and other constant conditions, which may be undesirable to certain sensitive cell cultures. In certain cell and tissue cultures, cellular metabolism releases lactic acid which can build up to undesirable quantities in the media. In other circumstances, it is desirable to prevent or diminish cell growth by affecting the metabolism of a cell strain or cell type on a mixed culture. In addition, it is also often a desirable goal to be able to control the metabolic and growth rates of cells in culture. The measurement of metabolic rate of cell cultures can be made by e.g. measurement of lactic acid present in the media. Over production of the products of metabolism can alter conditions significantly within the culture. Control over the metabolic rate allows the practitioner to control the cell population. In addition, inter-cellular communication may be affected by the presence or absence of certain metabolic products.
The present invention involves the induction of static magnetic field null field which is directed to intersect with cells in media rates, to promote effects on the cell involving growth, motility, viability, inter-cellular communication and cell clumping.
In artificial insemination the general standard for viable sample is to have between about 20 to about 60 million viable sperm per cc of sample. For certain artificial insemination procedures in humans, the acceptable range for artificial insemination is between about 5 and about 20 million viable sperm per cc. This range is effective for routine use in artificial insemination. Viability is determined based upon motility.
In normally fertile males, the collection of semen is done through obtaining ejaculate, measuring the number of viable sperm and injecting the sperm into the uterus. In some instances, a split sample is obtained to maximize the number of viable sperm in the inoculate. The split sample has the longest number of viable sperm in the first portion of the ejaculate, generally. However, viability is measured solely on visual observation of members of sperm that are motile.
In decreased fertility, the first portion of the split sample of ejaculate may have 60 million viable sperm while the second ⅔ of the sample may have only 5 million viable sperm. For this reason, the first portion of the ejaculate is collected for use in normal artificial insemination or by injection of the sperm into the uterus.
In situations of decreased fertility, particularly those resulting by non-motile or clumped sperm, the application of the invention of this patent will result in awakening of dormant ions motile sperm and decreased clumping. Therefore, the effective number of viable sperm will be improved.
This device can also be applied to improve activity in sperm in a variety of breeding animals. The application of this invention for increasing the count of viable sperm is applicable to horses and to other farm animals. In certain situations, the use of the device of this invention may increase the number of viable sperm available for artificial insemination. This could vastly improve the breeding possibilities for many farm animals, and in certain instances may improve the outcome of insemination particularly in the breeding of standard bred and saddled bred horses. Restrictions of various horse breeding organizations will have to be modified prior to the universal use of the device in artificial insemination of thoroughbred horses due to the rule restrictions on artificial insemination for breeding purposes.
In particular, protocols for artificial insemination require that at least 1 million sperm per cc. inoculated during this procedure be viable. It is also desired that the sperm not form clumps as clumping reduces the ability of sperm to fertilize ova. Furthermore, in certain instances a microscopic evaluation of a sperm sample may yield a false reading of non-viability due to low evident motility. The practice of this invention, by application of the device disclosed herein, results in higher visible motility and lessened cell clumping, yielding a better result of artificial insemination.
A variety of effects have been documented pertinent to electric and magnetic fields. Several in vitro studies have been used to document responses of selected cell systems to chemical and physical agents. A substantial number of experiments have been conducted to determine the magnetic field effect on a variety of cell systems, both in vitro and in vivo systems. Magnetic field exposures of 50 to 60 Hz, delivered at strengths similar to those measured in standard residential exposure (which ranges between 0.01 to 1.0 μTesla (μT) do not produce any significant in vitro effects that are replicatable by independent studies.
Magnetic field strength greater than 500 μT (5G) have been implied to induce changes in intracellular calcium concentrations and general patterns of gene expression as well as in several components of signal transduction. The general conclusion in the scientific community is that in vitro experimentation involving magnetic field exposures between 50 to 60 Hz have been shown to induce changes in cultured cells only at field strengths that exceed average residential exposures by factors of 1,000 to 100,000.
Magnetic field effects can be induced both through the exposure to a magnetic field and by placement of a cell culture within the null area of the magnetic field. The effects of null field exposure have not been measured as widely as the effect of electric and magnetic fields to date. In particular, exposure to static magnetic fields has not been as extensively evaluated as have the effects of magnetic fields generated by power lines and appliances. These fields are generally not static (as the fields generated by magnetic are) nor are they of the strength of magnetic field as can be produced using magnetite or lodestone.
The evaluation of cellular effect of exposure to an agent can be measured via genetic effect or via mechanical effect. Cultured cells and cell populations have been used to detect the genotoxicity of different environmental agents. Those agents which cause induction of heritable genetic changes directly and those changes which are indicative of heritable changes, such as induced DNA damage, DNA repair, non-heritable chromosomal aberrations and sister chromaid exchanges have been measured. Far short, however, of genotoxic effects, are the effects of physical manipulation upon cell systems. That is, not all electromagnetic or magnetic effect will be seen in genotoxic effects. (These effects are generally transient.)
Transient changes in cell expression have been noted upon exposure of cells in vitro to electric and magnetic fields. These have been postualted as membrane mediated signal transduction by hormones and other signaling agents involving the transmission of signals across the plasma membrane. Low frequency electric or magnetic fields have been postulated to act on intra-cellular processes by influencing only the initial extra-cellular steps of signal transduction. Low frequency, low energy electric and low energy magnetic field interactions with biological systems including cells animals and humans have been conducted. Signal transduction effects have generally been seen as transient.
Although there are a great variety of signals that can be found in biologic systems, the mechanisms for transmitting the information in those signals across the plasma membrane are relatively few. Signal transduction may be a factor in cell mediated movement, cell-cell iterations and intra-cellular communications. In all known signal transduction systems, a signal interacts with an intra-cellular protein (a receptor or voltage sensitive ion channel) and triggers conformational changes in the protein that results in other signals or modifications of cellular metabolism. Signaling agents with limited ability to cross the cell membrane interact with receptor proteins that span the cell membrane. These ligand-activated receptors have an extra-cellular domain that is exposed to the medium surrounding the cell and signaling agents interact with this extra-cellular domain. Interaction of the signal with the extra cellular portion of the receptor produces conformational changes which are then transmitted across the membrane to the intra-cellular portions of the receptor molecule. Interaction of the intra-cellular portion of the receptor with other intracellular molecules causes changes in the activities of cellular pathways. The same receptor pathways may also function to affect the motility of cellular structures such as flagella and/or cilia.
Magnetic fields may interact with atoms, ions, or molecules in the plasma membrane or within the intra-cellular material or the nucleus of the cell. Any of these possible interaction methods may function in a signal transduction event leading to further changes in the function of the cell, or in the behavior of a cellular organism. Magnetic field exposures could cause changes in affinity of receptors for the ligand or in the effectiveness of transaction processes at low field strengths.
One area that has not been extensively studied is the effect of magnetic fields upon cell cultures and cell populations of induced magnetic fields exposure. The changes in response of these systems can be evaluated by comparison of the metabolism of the cells, motility of cells, and general physical condition of the cells during the evaluation. It may also be possible to show in the future that low level magnetic in electric fields may affect the ion uptake systems mediated by the plasma membrane. Alternatively, transmitters produced by various cell types may be affected by the induction of electrical or magnetic fields.
The literature remains consistent in the finding that low level electric and electro-magnetic fields have no substantiated effect, such as would cause adverse effects, cause cancer, affect reproduction or neurobehavoiral responses. Generally, studies of electro-magnetic fields have concentrated on field levels as are observable at or near high voltage transmission lines. These structures presented great concern for individuals owning property traversed by these high voltage lines in the 1970's. The general finding has been that there is little evidence of adverse effects upon animals from either power transmission line induced electric or electromagnetic fields.
The intra-cellular structure and sub-cellular structures such as the agents of cell motion (cilia or flagella) may be affected by the signal transduction pathway of inter-cellular communications. Microtubule, centromers and other intra-cellular structures may also be effected by the application of relatively high intensity magnetic field (greater than 100 Gauss). No effect of magnetic field exposure has been found at the lower level where lower magnetic field intensities as are found near high voltage transmission lines and the like.
There are many ways to evaluate systems used to measure effects upon cells. Measurement of metabolism by lactic acid output in cell culture, cell motility, cell division, uptake of nutrient, and other various effects are used to determine the impact of an environmental gent upon a cell population.
In addition, during certain procedures for infertility treatments or during procedures for measurements of sperm viability, the exhibited motion of spermatocyes is measured to determine viability of the sample. In certain instances, non-viability may be indicated due to dormancy of cell as opposed to actual non-viability of cells. Thus, it is desirable to choose a method for inducing dormant cells to exit their dormant phase and to exhibit viability to that a true measure of sample viability can be determined.
Cells that are dormant, (thus non-motile) are often counted as non viable cells, when in fact they are not motile at the time of observation, but may become motile if environmental conditions are appropriate. The environmental conditions at issue include zinc or potassium ion concentration and amount of fructose present in the semen.
To date, there have been few processes or devices available to the practitioner to accurately determine the actual viability of cell populations where cell viability is measured by cell motility and may be affected by dormancy. The present device allows the practitioner to determine with accuracy, cell motility and/or viability.
The present invention improves cell motility without chemical addition to or modification of the media containing the cells being evaluated. In addition, the utilization of the subject invention resulted in no alteration of ultimate cell functionality and has no discernable effect upon the viability of the cells so treated.
The present invention applies directly to improved accuracy of measurement of viable flagellated cells and to improving flagellated cell viability, without any lasting adverse effect. Any improved motility may be due to effects on calcium channels in the plasma membrane. In certain cell collection procedures such as those undertaken to conduct artificial insemination, or in those measurements for determining sperm count in semen, it has been found that count of viable cells may be artificially low due to visualized inactivity of sperm cells. The within invention allows the practitioner to obtain an accurate measurement of sperm viability in a given sample by insuring that dormant sperm are not counted as non-viable. It further provides that sperm cells that are in a dormant state are not improperly attributed to a non-viable count of sperm cells but in fact are included in the count of viable sperm. Application of the within invention to cell collection media provides for accurate determination of viable cell count. This will allow medical practitioners to accurately counsel patients as to likelihood of conception in cases of previously determined low sperm count that may not result of non-viable sperm but are existent as a result of counting dormant sperm is non-viable. In addition, during artificial insemination, the within invention will allow the practitioner to perform the artificial insemination procedure using cells with a greater proportion of a sperm in the activated functional state. This result should improve the likelihood of conception as a result of the artificial insemination procedure.
The use of the device with an invention also has a demonstrated effect upon the metabolic rate of certain cell cultures. The ability to influence cell metabolic rate is important in regulation of processes where cellular metabolism runs in uncontrolled fashion, as is evident in cancer and certain infectious processes. The effect observed by applying the device of this invention is a decrease cell culture metabolism. Thereby cell culture viability and nutrient uptake may be affected. This effect may be important for sustaining cell culture populations, maintaining viable cell cultures in the laboratory.